Susan Stamberghttp://kplu.org
enThe Turbulent Love Story Behind Yves Saint Laurent's Revolutionary Risehttp://kplu.org/post/turbulent-love-story-behind-yves-saint-laurents-revolutionary-rise
In 2009, <em>Forbes</em> <a href="http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/27/yves-saint-laurent-auction-art-furniture-business-entertainment-dead-celebs-09-ysl.html">rated</a> designer Yves Saint Laurent the "Top-Earning Dead Celebrity" of the year. (Surely a bittersweet distinction.) Now, Saint Laurent's success — and how it was shaped and fed by his lover and manager Pierre Berge — is the subject of the new film <em>Yves Saint Laurent</em>. In it, their relationship is both interactive and supportive.Tue, 24 Jun 2014 16:20:55 +0000Susan Stamberg17345 at http://kplu.orgThe Turbulent Love Story Behind Yves Saint Laurent's Revolutionary RiseOne Collector's Plan To Save Realistic Art Was Anything But Abstracthttp://kplu.org/post/one-collectors-plan-save-realistic-art-was-anything-abstract
Plenty of collectors want to donate artworks to museums, but the museums don't always welcome them with open arms. "We say 'no thanks' 19 times out of 20," says Betsy Broun, director at the American Art Museum. Sometimes the works aren't museum-quality, other times they don't fit with the museums' philosophy.<p>But in 1986, representatives from the Sara Roby Foundation called the Smithsonian with an offer it couldn't refuse: paintings by Edward Hopper, Raphael Soyer, Reginald Marsh and many more.Mon, 12 May 2014 16:33:10 +0000Susan Stamberg16503 at http://kplu.orgOne Collector's Plan To Save Realistic Art Was Anything But AbstractJapanese Tea Ritual Turned 15th Century 'Tupperware' Into Arthttp://kplu.org/post/japanese-tea-ritual-turned-15th-century-tupperware-art
Eight hundred years ago, tea was rare in Japan. It arrived from China in simple, ceramic storage jars. Chinese ceramists churned these jars out with little care or attention; they stuffed tea leaves into them and shipped them off.<p>The jars were "the Chinese version of Tupperware," says <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/artandarchaeology/faculty/watsky/">Andrew Watsky</a>, a professor of Japanese art history at Princeton.<p>But once the workaday storage jugs reached Japan, they became objects of aesthetic contemplation and, often, reverence.Tue, 18 Mar 2014 17:33:52 +0000Susan Stamberg14986 at http://kplu.orgJapanese Tea Ritual Turned 15th Century 'Tupperware' Into ArtKeen Eyes, Uncanny Instincts Keep Films In Sharp Focushttp://kplu.org/post/keen-eyes-uncanny-instincts-keep-films-sharp-focus
You won't believe it — I didn't — but the person responsible for keeping each and every shot of a movie in focus never looks through a camera lens.<p>"No," says focus puller Baird Steptoe. "We do not look through the camera at all."<p>Steptoe has worked as a first assistant cameraman on films from <em>The Sixth Sense</em> to <em>Thor</em> to last year's <em>Grownups Two.</em> He says he's learned to judge distances — precise distances — with his naked eye alone.<p>"I mean, I can tell you roughly from you to me right now," he says. "I would say about 2-11."<p>Two feet 11 inches, that is.Fri, 28 Feb 2014 17:59:37 +0000Susan Stamberg14261 at http://kplu.orgKeen Eyes, Uncanny Instincts Keep Films In Sharp Focus'Clap!' On Set, The Signature Sound Of The Slatehttp://kplu.org/post/clap-set-signature-sound-slate
More than the roar of the MGM lion, more than the 20th Century Fox fanfare, the iconic sound of moviemaking is the sharp clap of a slate — although film folks have a language of their own to describe it.<p>"Miki's hitting the sticks on this one," says assistant cameraman Larry Nielsen, pointing to <em>his </em>assistant.<p>Take after take, day after day, some Miki or other on a movie set "hits the sticks" — to synchronize the sound with the pictures. In the silent-film days, it wasn't an issue.Thu, 27 Feb 2014 17:29:08 +0000Susan Stamberg14202 at http://kplu.org'Clap!' On Set, The Signature Sound Of The SlateSid Caesar, Who Got Laughs Without Politics Or Putdowns, Dies At 91http://kplu.org/post/sid-caesar-who-got-laughs-without-politics-or-putdowns-dies-91
Comedian Sid Caesar, one of early network TV's biggest stars, died Wednesday morning at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 91.<p>Caesar didn't do smut, putdowns or smarmy remarks. Instead, he did <em>skits:</em> grown-up, gentle comedy for the whole family.<p>In one skit, Caesar was the smarter-than-anyone German "professor." Carl Reiner played a movie executive with money problems. The professor's solution? Make a musical — and get the greatest composer in the world. He is shocked to discover that his top choice won't be available.<p><blockquote><p>"Beethoven, dead? Ludwig is gone.Thu, 13 Feb 2014 04:31:17 +0000Susan Stamberg13594 at http://kplu.orgSid Caesar, Who Got Laughs Without Politics Or Putdowns, Dies At 91Thanksgivukkah: A Mash Of Two Holidays That's Easy To Relishhttp://kplu.org/post/thanksgivukkah-mash-two-holidays-thats-easy-relish
It's that time of year again. Time for Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish. Every year since 1972, around Thanksgiving, I've shared my mother-in-law's famous cranberry relish recipe on the radio. It's appallingly pink, like Pepto Bismol — but it tastes terrific.<p>This year, I bring my relish recipe to Thanksgivukkah. Next week, Thanksgiving and the start of Hanukkah fall on the same day. It's a rare convergence.<p>How unusual is it? Well, the last time Thanksgiving and Hanukkah shared a start date was 125 years ago — and it won't happen again for another 76,000 or so years.Fri, 22 Nov 2013 17:25:51 +0000Susan Stamberg11232 at http://kplu.orgThanksgivukkah: A Mash Of Two Holidays That's Easy To RelishWWII 'Canteen Girl' Kept Troops Company From Afarhttp://kplu.org/post/wwii-canteen-girl-kept-troops-company-afar
American service members have long spent holidays in dangerous places, far from family. These days, home is a video chat or Skype call away. But during World War II, packages, letters and radio programs bridged the lonely gaps. For 15 minutes every week, "Canteen Girl" Phyllis Jeanne Creore spoke and sang to the troops and their loved ones on NBC radio.<p>Her Christmas shows were morale boosters. America must "use more sentiment and less tinsel, and that's the way it should be," she told her listeners during one wartime Christmas broadcast.Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:48:31 +0000Susan Stamberg7403 at http://kplu.orgWWII 'Canteen Girl' Kept Troops Company From AfarPrint-Inspired Art: All The News That's Fit To Painthttp://kplu.org/post/print-inspired-art-all-news-thats-fit-paint
The print newspaper industry may be struggling, but newsprint is alive and well on the walls of a new exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The show is called <a href="http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/shockinfo.shtm" target="_blank">"Shock of the News"</a> — and it examines a century's worth of interaction between artists and the journals of their day.<p>A 3-foot high, three-dimensional work in one gallery looks like geometric sculpture. The big white rectangle sits on the floor, squared off at the edges.Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:14:06 +0000Susan Stamberg6453 at http://kplu.orgPrint-Inspired Art: All The News That's Fit To Paint